Fluid solidifiers are a common industrial general purpose absorbent. These solutions have ‘encapsulation technology’ that impedes the activity of fluid spills that can be up to more than 100 times its own weight. Fluid solidifiers are sprinkled onto a spill and the granules absorb the fluid rapidly, turning it into an easy-to-scoop granulated gel that can be disposed of properly.

There are of course other fluid solidifiers on the market, all which act and react in a similar fashion. Usually a granular substance that can be sprinkled or dumped into a spill, the industrial general purpose absorbents encapsulate the spill immediately and begin to soak it up into its pores. Then one can easily remove the granules that have soaked up the spill and dispose of them. This method of absorbing liquid materials has been around for a long time, however many advancements have been made in the area of general purpose absorbents. In some cases, industry requires an absorbent that can absorb a variety of liquid products, from oil based to water based and including a wide variety of chemicals.

If there is a spill where an industrial general purpose absorbent has been used, it is critical to note that clean up is done immediately and properly. There are a variety of ways to dispose of the used absorbent properly as well as regulations for how certain products and chemicals can be disposed of. It’s important to check with your local agency or company to find out how to properly dispose of a cleaned up spill.

Another issue that is important to the industrial general purpose absorbent industry is environmental protection. Some spills are highly toxic and can damage the environment. These spills are required to be contained immediately and disposed of properly. In some cases, you may have to report the spills to a local government agency, especially if the chemical or product that was spilled is not environmentally friendly or is corrosive or dangerous in any way. Soaking up and containing the spill quickly is of paramount importance, which is why engineers are consistently working towards better products that are more environmentally friendly and do their job quickly and efficiently.

There are also a wide variety of wipes available for industrial general purpose absorbents. These wipes are durable yet surface safe–they are often safe enough to work on glass but tough enough to wipe down machinery and wipe up caustic spills. Some wipe absorbents are moist and treated with a solvent to help wipe up and clean the spill that happens.

If spills are expected or highly likely in an area, you can choose a mat or pad to lay down. These industrial general purpose absorbents can be used to protect an area that has a high likelihood of spills, to wipe up a spill or used as a liner for products that may leak or be dirty. These pads generally work in the same way–with an inner core that locks the leak or spill into the center of the pad quickly and for easy disposal.

There are many products that can be used as an industrial general purpose absorbent, finding one to suit your needs is quite easy.

Your selection of a product/service is of critical importance. The subsequent steps in your action plan will be determined by what you are selling. When looking around for products/services, think about the following:

Is there an existing demand for this?

In general, you should fit a product to an existing market & not try to create a market for a product. Although the odd freak product like the Pet Rock or Cabbage Patch Doll defies this rule, the majority of ventures which try to create a market for a product are dismal failures. In selecting your product, remember to give people what they want not what they need – people generally ignore what they really need because they are distracted by what they want. Successful products will generally fulfill one or many of people’s dominant desires:

• to be healthy
• to look better
• to attract the opposite sex
• to make money
• to escape physical pain
• to save money
• to feel safe
• to be self-confident
• to be successful
• to save time
• to have more leisure time

Sex, Health, Self-Improvement & Money are areas which tend to sell very well, but the competition is ferocious. If you want to crack these markets, don’t be discouraged by how many others are selling – they are selling because people are buying. Just do it better!

Online porn is probably the biggest seller on the net, but there are other less offensive ways to tap into the sex market. You can sell sexual self-help books (“How to Become a Better Lover”) or sexual products (specialty lingerie, sex toys, erotic fiction). Let your imagination flow. The point is that there is a huge demand for all things sex.

Health is another great market because so many of us are concerned with living healthier & longer. The diet craze is a multi-billion dollar industry. Fitness is also a money maker; just check out the late night infomercials. Herbals & vitamins are a huge market as well. Magnet therapy is a booming industry.

Self-improvement/motivation is another burgeoning market. These products are generally book or course based. Everything from “Unlocking Your Infinite Personal Potential” to “How to Give & Get the Most from your Relationships” exists. Don’t think self-improvement is big? Watch Oprah for a few days. Her show reaches millions daily & is completely focused on self-improvement. Every self-improvement author who appears on the show is guaranteed a best-seller. There is a shift going on in society which sees people looking for inward change. Now is a good time to be a supplier of such materials.

Money is huge as well. There are thousands of “how to make money” products which generally target the home-based business segment. Infomercials on get rich quick schemes are all over the dial on late night TV. These are big & most of them offer distributorship deals. Almost everyone’s ears will perk up if you tell them you have a way to increase their cash flow without a lot more work. That’s why these programs sell like hot cakes – we are all looking for the easiest way of the 30 year treadmill.

Products in high demand offer the buyer a quick & easy to implement solution to a problem. The following products are proven winners:

If you can sell consumable products that require regular replenishing, you will insure that most 1st time customers become lifetime buyers. But even these guidelines are a little meaningless because there is really no absolute way to know if a product idea is worth investigating without doing some legwork to test the demand for that product.

There is no absolute rule for what products sell – it’s an ever changing landscape, so the best approach is to learn a repeatable process for selecting what you can sell profitably.

A good approach to picking winning products is to 1st find a market, then identify products that satisfy the demand already present. If you get caught up in product selection without tying to an existing market, you are dead before you have begun…This is the critical mistake that most business start-ups make.

Searching the Clickbank marketplace for affiliate products that you would like to promote can be incredibly overwhelming when you first start out. There are many categories to search through with many subcategories, each with pages of products to choose from that you could choose to promote. Choosing a Clickbank product that is profitable isn’t really as difficult as you might think when you first examine Clickbank, just so long as you know exactly what to look for when you are examining the products and deciding which one to promote. Just follow these 6 foolproof steps for selecting a great Clickbank product.

1. Choose a Niche

The first thing you need to do is determine in which niche you are going to locate the products you intend to promote. The niche should be something that you have an interest or a general knowledge in, like possibly a hobby or something like that. That way you have your own unique knowledge from your experiences which you can use for marketing the product or products you decide to promote. Once you have determined which niche you are going to promote in, go to the Clickbank Marketplace and locate the category where your niche is and look at the list of products.

2. The Salespage

The first thing you need to look at with these products is the merchant’s salespage for the product you are considering promoting. The first thing you should look at is the layout of the sales letter. Is there a solid, enticing headline that will draw people in and make them want to read the rest of the sales letter? Also, it should have a good body copy that is interesting and to the point. One that will keep people wanting to read the whole sales letter. Also, it should contain strong bullet points that catch the readers attention and outline the benefits of the product. You should also make sure there are testimonials. A lack of testimonials creates a lack of trust in the product, so it probably won’t convert as well as a product that includes testimonials. The product should also have powerful bonuses that make the decision appear to be a no brainer because of their incredible value.

The sales letter should also contain a compelling call to action that encourages the reader to take action (and become a customer). Another great thing would be a time sensitive offer, such as a discount for a short period of time, or a limited number of bonuses. This is a great bonus because it creates a sense of urgency so people are rushed to make a decision before they lose the bonuses or the price goes up. This is not a necessity, but it does create a higher conversion rate, so it is definitely something you should look for. The last thing you should look for, although this is also not necessary, is to see if the page has eye- catching graphics. This just makes it look more professional, but it is not necessary. If the product contains everything else, but not very good graphics, it is still most likely a great product.

3. Quality of Product

If you are going to promote a product it is much easier to convince other people that it is a great product if you personally believe it is a great product. Now, this doesn’t mean you should go and buy every product you are considering promoting. Instead, all you have to do is contact the merchant and request a copy of the product or a review copy so that you can better promote their product. If you have a decent track record, most product owners will be happy to hand you a free copy so that you can make more sales. Once you have a copy, try out the product. Discover its good points and its poor points. Determine the overall quality of the product.

If the product is a piece of junk, then obviously you don’t want to promote it. If it is a good quality item, then you can check off #2. Now, if the product owner will not give you a copy and you don’t want to purchase a copy, then just read very carefully through the sales page to get a really good idea about what the product includes and how good it is. Then Google reviews for that product to see what other people have to say about it. If it looks good, then go with it. If you find a lot of bad reviews though, you might want to find a different product.

4. Commission Payouts

You need to check the commission percentage of the product and see if it is worth promoting. You want to be sure that you are going to actually make a profit from your efforts. Generally you do not want to promote a product that pays below $20. Also, I generally tend to stay away from some of the bigger items that pay a couple hundred dollars, because those generally have very high competition, as many people think that they are obviously the most profitable products to promote. (but you will not fall for that, right?)

The trick is to find something somewhere in between the two, something that pays a good amount, but not so much that there is a large amount of competition from other affiliates.

5. Gravity

The gravity shows how well the product is selling. The higher the gravity, the better the product is selling. But beware: higher gravity means that there are probably a lot of people promoting it, meaning you will have a lot of competition, so it may be harder for you personally to get the sales. I tend to try to find products that are above 50, but below 150. An exception would be if a product has just been released, then the gravity might be very low, so if it still meets all the other criteria, then it could still be OK to promote.

6. % Referred

This tells you what percent of the sales the merchant makes are from affiliates. If this is at 90% then it means affiliates are doing well selling this product, but it also means there is probably a lot of competition. Generally you want a percent referred of between 50% and 75-80%. Below that means affiliates aren’t doing well with it, and above that means that affiliates are probably doing too well, and you came too late.

BONUS TIP

If the product you are examining meets all the above criteria, then one more thing you can do to really make sure that it is the perfect product to promote, is to do a couple of Google and Yahoo! searches and find out if anyone is promoting the product you just examined. If there is no one promoting it, then that is a red flag, and you should drop it. (Although if it meets the above criteria that should definitely not happen)

If there are pages and pages of ads from other affiliates, then that is also a red flag. But if there are a few people promoting it, then that means it is profitable, and there is not a ton of competition. A perfect product!

If you simply follow these 6 simple steps, you will be able to pick a winning affiliate product in no time flat! But there is one key component not listed in the six steps. You have made the first step to your success by reading this. Now you have the knowledge, and with that knowledge you now have potential. But in order for you to reach your full potential you need to take action, as you will never achieve anything if you do not take action! Remember, “you reap what you sow”! So please, do not put it off another minute! Take action immediately!

Among the challenges that marketers face in real life experiences versus school theories is the application of what we learn in our professional life. Schools updating frequently the books they use to reflect market development are limited. Even when some attempt to do it, they are not able to collect enough examples to prepare you for real life experiences. By all means, they cannot teach you a life time experience in a 3 credits course.

When I studied Business, I focused on marketing courses. I liked the field but I never thought I will be traveling to so many countries and exposed to different cultures. No university could have prepared me to such experience, yet I was taught the basics.

One of the concepts I learned in marketing is the Product Life Cycle (PLC) and its effects on the marketing mix. PLC is a term used to define the various stages that a product goes through. From its conception to its production, its maturity to its decline, the product goes through multiple phases and they are usually referred to as: Introduction, Growth, Maturity, and Decline. Although I find PLC to be a sales concept rather than marketing, the interrelation between sales and marketing makes the involvement of the marketers essential as they will have to adopt various approaches when facing the different stages.

Most of the articles I read about the PLC assume that the product is new, the competition is low to none, and that customers need to be educated and prompted to act towards the product. How about the not so new products? What if you are launching a competitive product in the market? Does your PLC follow your competitor’s product PLC? My answer is no.

I have worked in multiple types of markets varying from ones where my company had monopoly over mobile telecommunication to extremely competitive markets where we were the 4th operator to enter the market. I used the PLC as a reference although I believe that the decline phase in mobile communication is not something that I will see in my lifetime hence my preference in using the term Product Cycle versus Product Life Cycle. Surely, I watched the decline of some technologies used, only to be replaced by newer ones (AMPS versus GSM for example), I have also seen companies sold to bigger ones without affecting the presence of the product itself (mobile communication).

As I attempt to define the product cycle below, the reader should take into consideration that my approach is based on a professional experience to introduce a long term product in a competitive market by linking it to the marketing mix versus defining its characteristics from a sales point of view.

1. Introduction:

Product: Voice telephony is already known to the public. The investment in educating the public about the product is slim to none. Branding is usually what I focus on in order for the public to identify my product and be able to differentiate it from my competitors’,

Price: “Skim the cream” pricing was applicable when I worked for a company that monopolized the mobile telecommunication. The pricing policy to apply needs to be almost in line with my competitors, since it needs to attract customers without causing a price war between the operators (Fact: Companies need you as a customer for your money)

Place: Distribution depends on the type of market. If you have enough flexibility you can opt for direct sales via your own shops, through already established distribution channels (when existing distributors are not bound by your competitors’ exclusivity contracts) or by using the franchising approach. Usually I am faced with budget limitation and I start with using the existing distribution channels.

Promotion: Probably the most essential development in this stage. You will need to position yourself by differentiating yourself from your competition. Your message should be clear; you are not just another mobile operator. You need to build public awareness about your product without forgetting to position yourself in this competitive market. Depending on your strategy, your message is targeting the general public or the niche you are aiming for. Usually I start by targeting the general public since mobile telephony is used on a massive scale.

I should mention that usually at this stage I am introducing the basic mobile services. Due to the large investment made by the company it is not logical to invest in a multiple level of services hence increasing the expenditures. However the basic level of services should be able to offer a certain level of flexibility that guarantees positioning as a competitor.

2. Growth:

It is usually the stage where the company is building the branding differentiation. If your positioning message was well thought of at the introduction stage, then you already differentiated yourself from the competition. By now, if you have not achieved your target, you are probably working in a different company. You should learn from your mistake, although strategies a very useful in marketing tactics are as important in competitive markets.

Product: Enhance quality while focusing on your message to the target market. In the companies I worked for, enhancing quality is usually increasing coverage areas and upgrading congested sites. You may also want to introduce new services that support your product. I usually have SMS based services launched at this stage.

Price: It will usually depend on the competition. You do not want to be the first to start a price war yet you should be ready for it especially if your marketing strategy reflected its success into a declining market share for your competitors. If you had launched new services you may be able to set your own pricing if your competitors do not have them. Beware of setting high prices for those services though, your competitors may be able to launch them faster than you could expect.

Place: You have introduced your product; it’s time to expand your distribution channels. Identify the weaknesses of the first stage and try to explore the possibilities. At this stage I am usually adding a direct presence in the critical areas and adding incentives to encourage exclusivity.

Promotion: Due to the type of product I am dealing with this is where I target the niche segment, although I keep the general public message.

3. Maturity:

Your competitors are pushing hard, and so should you. When the first two stages are complete successfully you have already guaranteed a market share that you want to keep. Sometimes due to their high investment your competitors are the ones who have problems defending their market share (They matured earlier than you did). If that’s the case, you are still in the growth stage of your product. Reasons for your competitor maturity or a later decline may be an aging network which increases failure in calls and initially high operating expenses such as over-employment (trust me it happens).

Product: Enhancing features and services (Value Added Services). Although voice is the product of choice in many markets, the introduction and variation of SMS services can help in extending the duration of your product in the market.

Price: Usually lower than the stage before as your competitor matches with your VAS (Value added services)

Place: Distribution is fierce, you might have to increase the incentives offered to the distribution chain to keep your market share.

Promotion: Although you generally promoted your positioning and differentiated your product, you should focus on promoting the differentiation in the features between your product and your competitors’. (For example: Your rates per minute of usage are viewed as being higher but accepted because you are covering a wider area than your competitor. You differentiated yourself as being the operator covering all the country. If that was the case, maybe it’s time to focus that you are actually charging per second although you were announcing the minute price)

4. Decline:

Mobile communication became part of our life and I don’t see it fading any time soon. It is part of the communication process that evolved. However, some technologies used for communication faded and were replaced by other types (Semaphore flag signaling, Morse code, Telex, etc…)

In mobile communication when we talk about GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) we know it went from phase 1 to phase 2 and the 3G (Although in developing countries Phase 2.5 is still not applicable).

The marketing mix in this stage will depend on your company’s strategy. The cases I witnessed are as follows:

Maintaining the product by adding features such as the Ring Back Tone, MMS, and GPRS (General packet radio service, which is in brief the service that allows us to offer data)

Investing further by upgrading to a newer technology hence re-launching the product. Although maintaining (the point above) may be considered as investing further, they are separated due to the high difference in expenditure figures between the two.

Sustaining the product by offering it to a niche of customers. When my company decided to replace the old AMPS system with the new GSM we operated both networks together for a long period. The Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) was more reliable when it came to fax services and our business customers wanted to maintain this option. Another example happened in a different market where existing operators (and competitors) were not authorized to apply for GSM license until our exclusivity term comes to an end with the government. By using a first generation cellular technology such as AMPS they had to choose what to do. Our competitor kept a minimal number of employees (6 people in the whole company among which 2 were in the commercial department) and offered his service to his loyal yet VIP customers.

Discontinue the product. When it was time to take a decision as the product entered its decline stage, the majority shareholders of my previous company decided to sell to a firm willing to continue in this line of business. Another way is to simply dismantle and disregard the old product. When the AMPS system (from the previous point c.) became unsustainable, the main towers we used in the new GSM network while other technical equipment was sold.

In a competitive market you cannot deal with your product as an exclusive case. There are many market variations that will affect your decision and performance. The product cycle although theoretical, can help you set your strategy and tactics to ensure your success in your role as a marketer in your company.